The Andromeda Effect: Stellar Flash Book Two
by Neil A. Hogan
Chapter 1
The space station corridor shook wildly, as another gravity wave crashed over the 100-kilometer structure. “How much more can this thing handle?” Admiral Victoria Heartness asked, clinging tightly to one of the curved black metal ribs, as the stanchions shifted in their clamps. A pale woman in her late 40s, she’d had her share of space dangers, so her question was more fact-finding than fearful.
Not far from her, Dr. John Patel, a bronze man in his 60s, sporting white hair and a toothbrush moustache, was equally clinging, arms wrapped about another shaking girder. “The station is indestructible. Alas, we are not.”
Families of aliens of many different shapes, sizes, colors and manifestations stumbled, rocked or floated haphazardly along the shaking corridor leading to Ring Two, attempting to get to a safer environment. With each wave, the ones with legs stumbled and fell, then picked themselves up again, moving quickly. Others, more used to space collisions, ambled stoically amongst the crowd, heeding the call to return to their living areas.
Heading against the flow of alien residents, a short woman with close-cropped black hair, clad in her nanite suit, had just picked herself off the ground from where she had just fallen. She quickly grabbed another stanchion near them. “I guess I arrived at the right time!” Her voice was barely audible above the groaning of the support structures around them. “Though, I hardly expected to meet my peers flat on my face in a corridor. I’m not in college anymore!”
“Not the welcome you were expecting!” called Heartness. “Are you alright, Admiral Zhao?”
“Please, call me Wei. Yes, all things considered. Do these parties happen often?”
Another wave burst through the corridor, warping structures and blurring the air around them with micro space-time eddies. Wei flinched as a stanchion broke from its clamps near them and collapsed into multiple pieces. Her eyes widened as the pieces separated further, then crawled back up the side of the corridor and reassembled as a stanchion again.
“Thankfully, no,” replied Heartness, with a pained expression as the gravity wave passed through her. “Let’s wait until the crowd disappears, then head to my office.”
Both Patel and Zhou nodded.
Sparks flew from metal scraping metal, as another barrage of waves stabbed through them, Heartness almost letting go of the beam as her body weight doubled for a moment. “Oh, my God. I never want to be that heavy again!”
Zhou gasped, while Patel remained silent, the grimace on his face telling them he agreed.
Just as suddenly, the waves disappeared, and they released their handholds and straightened up. “Report!” said Heartness into her wrist band.
The station AI began immediately, sounding both official and motherly at the same time. “Minor injuries. Medical has been dispatched. Gravity wave origin confirmed to be Earth orbit.”
“What?” Heartness looked at Patel in alarm. “Experiments by you lot?”
Patel was equally surprised. “No. Gravity research is currently being conducted at the Proxibee outpost, for the safety of the Solar System.”
“I flashed here only an hour ago,” added Zhou. “If there had been a plan to send a gravity wave from Earth, I would have felt it before I arrived, allowing for the time difference to Saturn orbit. The waves can’t be from Earth.”
“Alert,” interrupted the AI. “Gravity wave has displaced ring matter from planet Saturn. Several bodies on collision course.”
“AI, put me on the station speaker,” said Heartness.
“Confirmed.”
“Attention, Attention. All residents. Activate nanite and force suits where possible, and brace for impact. Possible collisions expected.”
Patel had been waving his hand at her while she was speaking, and finally got her attention. “Victoria, we have to get to your office, now. Displacement!”
Heartness’ looked at him in surprise as the realization hit her. “The orbit! You’re always ahead of us, John. We’ll have to leg it!”
Heartness immediately began running back up the corridor, with Patel and Zhou close behind, dodging the remaining aliens.
As they ran, the windows beside them revealed the slowly turning dark side of Saturn, its rings tilted downwards, glints of light reflecting off several rocks that were heading inexorably towards them.
Heartness pointed at the speeding masses as she ran, and called back after Zhou and Patel. “They’ll knock us into the lower debris orbit. That amount of pummeling will turn everyone inside into mush, while the station keeps rebuilding itself around us.”
Heartness’ office door appeared, and it opened as it detected her unique vibration. She rushed in, then across to the center of the room, and cut the air diagonally with her arm. Immediately, control systems formed, solid holograms linking directly to the main controls on the front of the satellite and the engines at the back.
“Engines offline,” said the system.
“Goddammit.”
“Do your best,” said Patel, as he and Zhou skidded in after her. “It might repair quickly. I’ll have to investigate.”
He began checking the address on his flash band, but Heartness ran around to him and grabbed his arm. “John. You can’t flash-jump now. Gravity waves, about to be hit by rocks, too many variables for the jump to be accurate.”
“Victoria, I’m certain the gravity waves have stopped. And we’ve still got a few minutes before the rocks hit.” Without waiting for her reply, he hit his flash band, and Heartness and Zhou stepped back as the white isolation sphere enveloped him, and he disappeared.
“Fine then. Not like I’m your superior here, or anything.”
Zhou covered a smile.
Heartness turned back to the display, which showed several rocks heading towards the station, while Zhou observed calmly. “A.I. Status.”
“Trajectories of matter, and energy released on impact, indicate an orbital drop of several thousand kilometers to the outermost ring. In addition, gravity waves have disrupted approximately 10,000 bodies, heading this way on various paths.”
“Suggestion?”
“Shift station to the other side of the planet.”
“Follow the orbit, or just…”
“Relocate Space Station X-1a within 5 minutes and 47 seconds.”
Heartness looked at her screens incredulously.
“How?” asked Zhou, surprised. “This station doesn’t have enough fuel for a pole burn. Unless…”
Heartness rolled her eyes. “Another thing I haven’t been told about yet. A.I. Is this station fitted with a flash drive?”
“Confirmed. Flash drive system is located at the Central Pylon between Ring Two and Ring Three. Operational.”
Patel’s voice came through her flash band. “Arrived safely. Engines should be working, but gravity waves have warped some of the circuits. We need to wait until the nanites finish repairing them before we can fire them.”
“Forget that,” said Heartness. “Get the flash system up and running, and shift this baby to the other side of Saturn.”
“What? Right! Meet you at the Central Pylon.”
Heartness shook her head. Of course, he knew about it. He knows everything about everything. “Wei. Please take care of the station from here. Field any emergency situations that you can. I’ll sort this out with John.”
“You’re going to flash there?”
“Well, if he can do it…”
Zhou nodded, then Heartness sent a thought to her flash band, confirmed the right address showed on the panel, and disappeared.
Heartness materialized in the main market area of Space Station X-1a, and approached the Central Pylon. It was currently disguised in the shape of a silky oak tree from Australia – a tourist attraction for many. She looked about, relieved to see that the gravity waves and the impending collisions of rocks had cleared the area. It was best the general residents didn’t know this technology was here.
Moments later, Patel joined her.
“A.I, deactivate the Pylon display,” she said.
The tree immediately disappeared to reveal a large column with a break in the center, and a crystalline floor and ceiling that spread away from it.
“I had no idea this was here.” Heartness looked at it in wonder.
“Earth Council security protocol. Visitors should remain unaware that flash technology is easily accessible. Especially the Florans. They’d activate it and take the whole station, just for their amusement.”
“But, most aliens have flash technology, already.”
“The rules are over from the old days,” Patel sighed. “We humans still have our suspicions. And we’re always worried the Florans might try something else to get this sector of space.”
There was a beep, and a countdown commenced. “Impact in 2 minutes and 33 seconds,” said the AI.
“Right, well, let’s get it done.” Heartness went over to the panel and swiped her hand. Nothing happened. She looked pointedly at Patel.
“You’ve only been here a couple of weeks. I haven’t had a chance to give you the authorization for this yet.” Patel swiped his hand across the white screen, and the drive began humming. “Now any Admiral can command it.”
“Thank you! AI, please enact your suggestion. Choose the best location for the other side of Saturn.”
“Confirmed.”
The flash drive hummed, the light flickered, and a ball of liquid light materialized within the columns. In moments, the sphere of energy expanded and enveloped them.
Outside, the sphere grew, surrounding the 100-kilometer space station in an isolation field. Then, the entire structure disappeared, multiple asteroids flying through the space where the sphere had been moments ago.
Moments later, on the lit side of Saturn, the station rematerialized. Heartness walked over to a window to look at the damaged rings. Streaks of rocks had cut through like spokes, and small explosions were appearing on the surface of the planet as more of the matter of its rings collided with the atmosphere.
“Well,” said Heartness. “It looks like Saturn is going to get the worst of it. At least we’re out of danger now.”
Just then, alarms began blaring again. “Now what?” asked Patel.
“Attention,” said the A.I. “Flash mass difference detected. Analyzing.”
Heartness looked at him with a troubled expression on her face. “Flash mass difference? That’s all we need.”
The Andromeda Effect. Stellar Flash Book Two by Neil A. Hogan
Now Available in Digital and Print
Sent back 2.5 million years in time to the Andromeda Galaxy to investigate why there’s a record of them having been there, the Stellar Flash crew encounter a creature so powerful that it has taken control of the entire galaxy by thought alone.
With most of the crew unconscious, Captain Jonathan Hogart is in a race against time to defeat the plant-planet, save the galaxy, and find a way to return to 2133.
But another force is attempting to take control, to use the power of the creature from the past to take over the Milky Way Galaxy in the present. And, for this, Hogart has no defense.
How is the creature controlling an entire galaxy?
Who has the technology to transmit the creature’s power from the past to the present?
And will the Stellar Flash crew and the Space Station team be able to save both galaxies?
Available now at –
